Dear David Crausby MP

A while ago I signed the change.org petition to block the MPs pay rise (it's dead easy, and there are currently 323,703 signatories).

Just before Christmas I received an email suggesting that I email my MP directly to find out whether he intends to accept the pay rise. The response will be sent to Change.org and they will publish to findings.

Here is what I wrote...

"Dear David Crausby,

I have a question for which I require a response.

Will you be accepting the 11% pay rise?

I have recently signed a petition to block the pay rise as I feel deeply concerned that there was very little public consultation, in spite of the continued rhetoric from IPSA insisting that this is what the public want. In addition, the idea that MPs will get this pay rise at a time of national austerity disgusts me. Most of your ordinary constituents have not had a pay rise, (and in many cases have had a pay
cut in realistic terms) for several years.

I feel that you were fully aware of the renumeration package you would receive prior to your appointment in May 1997, and in your 16 years as an MP, you have not left office to find a better paying job.

My concerns run deeper than that. Every day, I drive 35 miles to work from your constituency in Bolton to Tytherington in Macclesfield. I don't get to claim expenses, or even tax relief, for my travel, and I can't afford to rent or buy a home nearer to work.

I am strongly opposed to any suggestion that this pay rise will sort out the expenses problem. There should be no expenses problem, and frankly, I feel that I could do a great job as an MP with a salary of £66,396, which is more than three times my annual salary.

I await your response.
Yours sincerely,

Mrs. Lydia Bernsmeier-Rullow BA PGCE"

Now, even if you don't sign the petition, write to your MP and ask them this simple question. It's as easy as clicking here https://www.writetothem.com/ and putting in your postcode. Remember, they work for you!

Stand Up

It's time to stand up...

A few weeks ago I posted an entry about not marching, not loudly protesting.

Well something just changed that.

This story about a woman who left a suicide note stating "I don't [blame] anyone for me death expect [sic] the government."

It can be argued that she may have been severely depressed before she received the letter confirming she would lose £80.00 per month as an "Under Occupancy Penalty". She may have had other struggles and mental health is not black and white. But on the other hand, even if the difficulties she was facing under the new Welfare Reform Act were merely a catalyst, isn't it possible to see the correlation between her finding out she was going to lose £80.00 per month of her benefits, that she would need to find or lose her home and her ultimately stepping out onto the M6?

It's time to act.

I have no idea how, although I suspect there will be a slew of protest marches across the country. I think it's time for me to start a slightly louder protest.

Now, the facts of the case are that she was offered an alternative home - but it was unsuitable, isolating her from her family and without good transport links. The Council were unable to offer her a property in the same area she had lived for over a decade, close to her family. How is this moral? And let's be clear, the way the legislation is written, this is a moral rather than a legal issue.

Will you join me? Will you stand up? 

Will you get angry with me? Will you shout?

Because I'm furious, and I KNOW I'm not the only one.

A Very Special Birthday...

Thanks to the lovely folk at "Broken of Britain" and a severe inability to sleep due to money worries, I have discovered that it has been exactly five years since the beginning of the Credit Crunch. And where are we?

Pay freezes which have lasted 4 years (and are essentially pay cuts when you account for inflation), spiralling debts (and that's just the government), increases in electricity, gas, transport, car insurance, car tax, food, water rates, Council Tax. And that is only the half of it. Here, The Guardian details where the 25 most influential people of the financial crisis are today. From politicians who ignored the problem, to speculators and bank bosses who caused the problem, to CEOs of mortgage firms who loaned to Ninjas (that's No Income No Job ApplicantS). And where are they? A few notable mentions are "Hank" Greenberg of AIG who is now advising the Ultra Wealthy on how to invest. Fred "the Shred" who is leading a quiet and comfortable life in Scotland, Former Bradford and Bingley Boss Steve Crawshaw who has a pension worth £105,000/year.

It is unlikely that any of these people will be truly punished for their misdeeds. Those who stood by and  knowingly allowed toxic bonds to be sold willy nilly across the globe won't face jail. Even the "Sub-Prime Specialists" of Bear Stearns paid a fine of just $1.05 million on losses of $1.6 billion.

Last month I threw caution to the wind and decided to go on holiday. It is a luxury, but one that we carefully thought about. Our last holiday was blighted by my injury, and with my depression worsening, we decided that we should take the opportunity to spend two weeks in the sun. Now my lovely bank has charged me £16.00 which took me over my overdraft. They then proceeded to charge me £22.00 for going over my overdraft. My Car Financing company ignored my request to change my payment date, and so now I don't know if I'll manage my finances over the next four weeks. I mention the holiday because I don't want any reader to think that we are destitute. I often feel guilty when I complain about my abysmal finances because there are plenty of people far worse off than me, I am one of the lucky ones. How come I feel guilty and yet those who caused the recession seem to be immune to this basic human emotion?

I have said it before and I will say it again, although I despise the actions of the bankers, I don't blame them - in the same way that I don't blame the dog that shits on the pavement outside the flat. (Yes, in this analogy, the bankers are the dogs and the government are the owners). New Labour promised, amongst other things - "New Labour", "getting 250,000 unemployed 16-25 year olds off benefits and into work", a commitment to "education, education, education"  and crucially "No More Boom and Bust". What did we get instead? Blue Labour, the highest levels of unemployment in decades, privatised Comprehensive schools with Academy titles... and of course a Boom in public spending with Quangos galore, followed by the Bust of the longest, deepest, double dipping-est recession the country has ever seen.

After D-Day, Britain was decimated. Some 800,000 soldiers, mostly men of working age, were dead, disfigured or missing in action. How did we managed to rebuild our cities, get out of rationing and "Keep Calm and Carry On" from 1945-1955? Our leaders were men of action. Firstly under Clement Attlee's labour government, then under Churchill's Conservative, Britain became Great again. The NHS was created offering non-descriminatory healthcare, free for all at the point of delivery, the Welfare State offering William Beveridge's "Cradle to Grave" support system was set into motion and the damage of done by WWII was fixed. Across major UK cities, slums were cleared and new innovative housing was built. By the time Harold Macmillan was appointed in 1957, Britain was in a Golden Age.

So what went so wrong in the intervening years? How come 60 years later, even with the advances in technology and the explosion in wealth and longevity we are now in worse financial shape than after the war? Could it be that we spent £11 Billion on hosting the Olympic Games (Spectacularly I might add) rather than a paltry £750,000 in 1948 (That's 0.7% of 2012 GDP vs 0.01% of 1948 GDP for anyone who wants to throw inflation into the mix, according to the Guardian) The 1948 games delivered a profit of £30,000 and actually cost the taxpayer nothing and the government did everything they could to keep costs down. They had to, the country, in fact most of the world was broke. Cut to 2012 and the Games are set to cost the tax payer four times as much as the original estimates. To put it in perspective, Manchester's 2002 Commonwealth Games cost £300 Million and hosted 71 nations. London's 2012 Olympics will cost £11 Billion and is hosting 204 nations - that seems like quite the disparity to me...

Our government seems intent on spending indiscriminately whilst cutting almost equally indiscriminately. Our wonderful, unique NHS must do more, with less, every year. Our schools are being farmed out to the highest bidder - will there soon be an IBM High or a Syco Academy of Music? We are being robbed blind with one hand, whilst with the other, Dave and his cronies give tax-breaks to millionaires who earn their money here and spend it abroad. Our legal aid system is rife with abuse, as is our welfare system, but instead of making life better for people who choose to work, they simply make it worse, both for those who do work AND for those who don't. I am sure we will see these people, forced off benefits getting legal aid to take the DWP to court under the Human Rights Act in the next few years, and they will win and they should. For to take from those whom have little or nothing to give to those who are (in some cases) obscenely wealthy is surely one of the grossest human rights abuses of the modern age. People are literally killing themselves (that's 3 different articles) because they cannot afford to live a decent life.

I kind of hope that this little blog might go viral. I'm one tiny voice, unable to cope amongst with the financial demands of living in 2012. But I'm sure, I'm positive that your tiny voice is saying the same thing. In pubs and cafes across the country. In sitting rooms, around kitchen tables, in double beds between couples. In hospitals, in schools and in workplaces across the country, we are all saying the same thing. If only we could join up those voices, maybe then we might be heard.

*Update (thanks Historic Inflation Counter - £700,000 in 1948 would equate to £21,530,000.00 today)

So What Now?

Thanks for all the feedback on my last post! Knowing that others feel the same way made me feel incredibly humbled and though I don't seek to speak for anybody other than myself, it was reassuring that I'm not going mad!

For a while now, I've felt like a big change is coming, like something's going to happen. I don't know what that might be, but I know I want to be a part of it. Imagine people, members of the public, all classes coming together for a common purpose.

I'm not talking anarchy, or the dissolution of the government, or a move towards a socialist Britain, or abandoning capitalism. I'm talking about 6 million people quietly stating that the status quo is unfair. So what do the people want? I can't speak for everybody, but my requests are simple and small.

1) Take the tax burden away from the most vulnerable (the elderly) and put it on the wealthiest by bringing back the 50p tax.

2) Reduce duty on petrol to allow members of the general public to move freely and get to work.

3) Find a better way to fund pensions which means that we can retire at 65.

Three small changes which will affect every person in the country. So, will you stand up and be counted? Will you reclaim your Britain for the people?

Time for a British Spring?

I've just had my Dad round to do a DIY job (I'm one of those non-manual lesbians!) and after he re-hung the towel rail that I broke about six months ago, we got to chatting as we do (I inherited my soapbox from him) and the conversation turned to politics. This is a volatile subject for anyone in these difficult times but for me and Dad it just seems to set us off. He has been lied to and lied to and lied to through his whole life by a series of never-ending and seemingly never changing political parties - but whereas in the old days you could live in hope for the next general election, today I swear we have one guy who keeps changing his tie - red, blue, yellow... What he said next scared me.

"I've NEVER seen it this bad" 

And why did that scare me?

My Dad is in his 50s, and in his lifetime, he has been through the 3 day week (1970-74), the Winter of Discontent (1978-79), the Introduction of the Poll Tax (1989-91), the Early Nineties Recession (1990-93),  and the Early Millennium Recession (2000-01). He's lived through 15% interest rates, Record Inflation of 10.9%, Sky High Local Rates which forced the family (including a two year old me) out of our home and yet he told me today;

"I've NEVER seen it this bad" 

He, and his whole generation were told they'd retire at 65 and then somebody spent their pensions. I know I'll never retire. I'll probably keel over aged 80 at my desk in my final office job.

And whose fault is it? The government, with their deception, spin and outright lies would have you believe it is your fault, or somebody else's fault, or the bankers fault, or the immigrants fault. These same fat cats are the ones making the policies on tax, health, education etc, whilst constantly and consistently undermining the laws they impose. Choosing private schools over public, choosing private health over the  NHS, creating companies in their own names to avoid income tax.

I used to blame the bankers, but now I realise that anyone will do what they can get away with including gambling with money that doesn't exist, insider trading, price fixing, paying extortionate bonuses to the gamblers, mis-selling PPI, offering poor financial advice to poor people, offering mortgages that people could never pay and then repossessing peoples' homes  - the Government should have protected the country's coffers and the money of the working man with regulation, laws and statutes.

I used to blame the high level of immigration (although I am the product of immigration), but now I finally realise that free movement is the right of every law abiding man woman and child on this planet and capping the number of immigrants who come into this country is a violation of natural law. The government should have made it easier for those coming in so they have no need to live and work here illegally and can contribute to this country.

I used to blame the rich, but once again, I realise that they do what they can get away with including refusal to pay a liveable wage, refusal to protect the environment, refusal to respect their employees health and safety, refusal to provide employment opportunities in the UK and instead sending their business overseas. The government should have protected its people and its industry.

And will it get better? I can't foresee a change for the better within my lifetime.

I used to blame the very poor who claim benefits, but now I realise that the poor sod who lost his mining job in the 80s left school with no qualifications and has been left behind by a society which can't even educate its kids anymore, never mind adults struggling with literacy. Unfortunately, they too will do what they can get away with - claiming their dole, HB, CTB, Tax Credits and Child Benefit, spending it giant TVs, Sky, iPhones, drugs, booze, anything to distract from the monotony of a desolate life. The Government, instead of throwing billions of pounds into developing this benefit culture, should have enforced a liveable minimum wage.

I've ALWAYS blamed myself, but now I realise that I too will do what I can get away with, like other normal people. When I have money, I'll spend rather than save - just like the government and my £10,000 debt is nothing compared to the £1Trillion owed by the country. The government should have set a better example frankly - but I'm not blaming them for my own downfall, that was my own doing.

There is nobody left in our Government who can be trusted to save this once great nation. Each and every one of them lies and deceives. I feel sick that my options in the next general election will be three wolves in sheep's clothing - in fact, no, they're not even in sheep's clothing. They make no attempt to disguise their true selves.

So what next? Is it time for action? Is it time for a British Spring? Or is it time for someone to stand up and say NO MORE? Because it's NEVER been this bad, and the only thing we're all in together is The Shit.